Aircraft are susceptible to high velocity impact events with birds, or bird strikes. To reduce the damage and effects of impacts, certain parts or areas of aircraft, such as those with blunt leading edges, for example, wings and stabilizers of the aircraft, are designed and/or sized to withstand such an impact event to assure safety of flight.
Referring to FIGS. 4A and 4B, for example, FIG. 4A is a perspective cross section of a conventional wing arrangement 70 and FIG. 4B is a perspective cross section of the leading edge 72 of the conventional wing arrangement 70 of FIG. 4A, with an apex of the leading edge 72 being designated by the numeral 74. The conventional wing arrangement 70 of FIG. 4A can include an outer face sheet 76, a core 77 and an inner face sheet 78 of suitable material. The conventional wing arrangement 70 also can include exemplary first and second spars 79a and 79b, respectively, with the portion of the wing arrangement 70 including the leading edge 72 and the first and second spars 79a and 79b being indicated by the ellipse 72a, the ellipse 72a also indicating the area of the leading edge 72.
Prior approaches to address reducing the damage and effects of impacts typically involved the thickening of structure, such as one or more of the inner face sheet 78 and the outer face sheets 76 or the core 77, or the addition or sizing of secondary structure, such as one or more spars, such as the spars 79a and 79b, to the aircraft wings. However, thickening or addition of structure for the purpose of preventing damage to critical structure or systems components results in an increase of the weight of the structure, as well as an increase in weight of the aircraft. Moreover, the additional weight, while addressing the effects of potential impacts, can add to the manufacturing and operating costs of the aircraft or other vehicle.
The geometry of the leading edge, such as a leading edge of a wing or stabilizer, typically has significant curvature. Impacts that are away from the apex of the leading edge have a tendency to be re-directed, thus potentially imparting less damage to the leading edge or subsequent structure behind the leading edge.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus capable of overcoming the disadvantages described herein at least to some extent.